May 30, 1903-





RECORD AND   GUIDE





1073









ESTABUSHED-^ ttM^H 21^^ 1 as 8.
IkuM> P RW- E^«E ■ BU!LDIJ/G ApJ^idTECTURE .t{cjUSEli01D DEBQ^Hia;.

^iisafeas Alto Themes op GafeR^. iKrER;^!;
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS

Published eVers Saturday

Communications should be addressed to
C. W.  SWEET,  14-16 Vesey  Street.  New Yorfc

1. T. LINDSEY, Bualneas Manager                         Telephone, Cortlandt 3157

"Entered ai ihe Post OMce ai New York. N. T., as second-olasa matter."





Vol. LXXI.





MAY 30, 1903.





No. 1837





THE condition of the stocli; Diarliet continues to be irregular
and unsettled. Any movement in prices one way or the
other is entirely superficial and tentative. General conditions
indeed seem to favor higher prices, and it is not easy to find a
solid explanation as to why, for instance, a stock paying 6 or
7 per cent, and likely to continue to do so, remains without pur¬
chasers at a price considerably lower than the figures that ex¬
isted wlien the stock itseJf was yielding a smaller return. Un¬
doubtedly, local financial conditions at the moment are opposed
to any considerable advance, and, as we pointed out last week,
even big banking houses, which would benefit most from a rise
in quotations of securities, do uot encourage such a movement
just now. Uuder tliese circumstances the market is likely to re¬
main in an uncertain state, but the speculative side of our pros¬
perity, which has been uppermost for so long, is undoubtedly
being replaced by a very decided tendency toward conservatism.
This conservatism, moreover, is intensified rather than other¬
wise by the unsettled condition of the labor situation and by the
crop prospects. This cautious attitude usually makes for lower
prices and possibly in this fact we have the best explanation of
the present condition of the stock market.





THE little local celebration which New York has been hav¬
ing during the past week in order to commemorate the
2a0th  anniversary  of its  incorporation  as  a city  suggests  the
desirability of holding a more elaborate celebration four years
from  now in order to  commemorate the 300th anniversary of
the  discovery  of  the  Hudson  by  Henry  Hudson.    We  do  not
mean even to bint that these exercises should take the form of
anything so costly and formidable, as a world's fair.    Even if
New York desired the bother and the work of organizing such
an exhibition, the time necessarily selected would be altogether
too soon after the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition.    We might,
indeed, follow the example of St. Louis and Chicago and cele¬
brate the occasion a year or more after the anniversary of the
event; but we do not believe that such a proposal would find
many supporters in this or any other city.    It should, however,
be possible to get up a small compact and distinctive local ex¬
position, designed particularly to show the achievements of the
city during the past century, and also to give the visitors to
New York during that period a particularly good time.    Or, it
would  be worth  considering whether something might not be
done by the associated art societies of New York to get up the
most  complete  and  representative  exhibition  of American  art
tbat has yet been seen.   It cannot be said that such an exhibi¬
tion   would be appropriate;    but It would most   assuredly be
timely, for there can be no doubt that the city is becoming more
aud more the art centre of the country.    In getting up such a
celebration  New  York has  a great advantage over any other
city in the country, not only because there are such an enor¬
mous number of people living within a radius of flfty miles from
the City Hall, but because it is becoming more and more the
habit   of comparatively   well-to-do people from all   over the
country to visit New York.    They find here more opportunities
for business and amusement than anywhere else in the country;
and in visiting this city they would be traveling a familiar road
and could be sure both of good accommodations and a good time.
Since there bas been no talk about it hitherto, it is improbable
that public opinion will be sufficiently interested to countenance
anything   but a  literary   celebration of  Henry   Hudson's  dis¬
covery; but we feel assured that before many years are out New
York's increasing sense of her metropolitan eminence and dis¬
tinction will receive some kind of an expression.    The veritable
consolidation of the Greater New York, wbich will be brought
about by the operation of the bridges and tunnels now under
construction, will so increase the momentum and efieetiveness





of the  city's life that  in  the end  the, impulse to publish and
commemorate its expansion will become irresistible.





-KW R. ANDREW H. GREEN'S suggestion that all tbe pro-
IJtl. posed sites for a new municipal building should be
abandoned, and that a site in one of several tenement-house
districts should be selected, has been received witb something
worse than disapproval; it-has been received with absolute in¬
difference. Of course, the situation he proposes would be cheap
enough, and they are not so far away as to be hopelessly in¬
convenient; but at tbe same time they do not and cannot excite
the least interest. If the property on Chambers street is very
costly its cost is determined by the value it has for private
business; and if business men can afford to pay these prices for
offices in that neighborhood surely the corporation of the city
of New York can afford to pay the same prices. The property is
valuable because it is conveniently and centrally situated; and
it would be more conveniently and centrally situated for the
offices of the city tban it would be for the offices of a savings
bank or a news company. Moreover, a city like New York,
which has just been congratulaUng itself over its wealth and
grandeur, must keep up appearances. To seek the site of its
new offlce building in a section now devoted to loft buildings
and tenements would be to show a very poor and parochial
spirit. If it were possible to move all the city departments to
some handsome central, convenient" and economical site north
of Fourteenth street the idea of deserting the neighborhood
of the present City Hall might be worth considering, but since
tbe present City Hall is an old and very beautiful building, and
since it is the home of valuable and time-honored civic associa¬
tions, no such removal is worth serious consideration. No!
The city of New York must find the site for its new municipal
building in the immediate neighborhood of its present City
Hail, and it must spend money freely to make that neighbor¬
hood worthy of its function. That with terminal and other
improvements it will be possible little by little to make tbat
neighborhood spacious, handsome and acceptable in every way,
and it is to that end that the efforts of local offlcials and
patriotic New Yorkers should be directed.





Real Estate Situation.

In a recent financial article in the "Sun" we find the follow¬
ing comment on  the real estate situation  in  this city:    "The
remark is frequently heard here in bank parlors and other im-
.    .            portant  quarters  that  the  building strike in

Speculation      O'Ji" city is a blessing in disguise, in that it
in               has stopped the building craze which has gone

Real Estate      on  uninterruptedly for a long time  and  has
and             put a curb upon speculation in real estate that

Building.        2^3g ^ggj^ jjjyj,^ wilder  than tbat in cotton."

If this  is  the  kind  of remark that is  being
passed   In  "bank  parlors  and   otber  important quarters"   the
hankers and  the other  inhabitants  of these "quarters" betray
an amusing ignorance of tbe existing situation.   There has been
no "building craze" in New York City—if by "building craze" is
meant an amount of new building not warranted by the increase
in the population and trade of the city.    During the years 1901
and 1902 there was indeed a good deal of building of all kinds,
but  particularly  of  office  huildings,  loft  buildings,  apartment
hotels and expensive residences.    In the flrst two of the classes
there has certainly been no over-building, because as soon as
the new buildings are erected they are rented.    It is possible
that in the vicinity of Twenty-third street tbe supply has run
ahead of the demand, but if so the excess is local and unimport¬
ant.    In the case of the apartment hotels, also, there is no sign
of over-building.    The new apartments are rented jtistas soon
as they are finished, and while they may not prove to be per¬
manently popular the presejit demand fully justifies the amount
of new building.   In the case of expensive residences, some of
the speculative builders are perhaps over-loaded;  but the diffi¬
culty, if it exists, is confined to only a few people.    As to flats
and tenements, so far frora there being any over-building, there
is an actual dearth of new accommodations, and if the strike
■continues, so that there will be no new buildings offered for rent
next fall, there promises to be an actual and a severe house
famine.   It will take several years of heavy construction in order
to place tbe supply as much ahead of the demand as it was in
1900.    As it is with building, so it is wifh real estate.    There
have been enormous increases in value of recent years in the
financial district and along the line of Fifth avenue; but specu- ■
lators would have been powerless,to make or hold these prizes,
had not tbe wealthiest and most conservative financial institu¬
tions been willing-to pay prices as large if not larger.   It is a
firm like Tiffany^ Co. W has paid tjie highest prices fpr